The In 1880, readers were introduced to a brilliant detective, a master of both disguise and

deduction who tackled cases that baffled the police.

Think you know who it is?

If you guessed Sherlock Holmes, you're a year too early.

Arthur Conan Doyle's first Holmes adventure was published in 1887, one year after

the debut of Nick Carter, a character who went from dime novels to pulp magazines, then to film and later radio.

Though not as well known today, Nick Carter enjoyed a long career as one of America's most celebrated detectives.

Nick Carter made his first appearance in The Old Detectives Pupil, a story published in the September

18, 1886 issue of Street and Smith's New York Weekly.

Street and Smith was one of the largest publishers of dime novels in the United States,

and the plot of the first Carter story sprang from

the mind of Armand G. Smith, son of one of the magazine's founders.

The old detective's pupil was penned by John Russell Coriel. He followed it with two more Nick Carter stories before he decided there was more money to be earned in writing romances.

The character was turned over to Frederick Rensler Day

who penned a 25,000 word Nick Carter novel each week

for 17 years. Carter became so popular that

Street and Smith launched a separate magazine devoted to his exploits.

Nick Carter was a clean cut, teetotling private detection. exploits. It was written that he could lift a horse with ease while a heavy man is seated in the saddle.

Nick had been groomed for the gumshoe game from birth by his father, a famous detective named Old Sim Carter.

Based out of a Ritzy New York apartment, Nick's cases took him all around the world, and

he was famous all around the world too.

In 1908, the first of three Nick Carter film

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